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Column 1

August 22, 2017

New Jersey governor has opened his state’s first rehab facility for prisoners, cut insurance red tape and emphasized treatment over punishment.

As Trump points toward a more punitive federal policy, local initiatives have flourished under a very different philosophy, something paradoxically advanced by Trump’s top adviser on opioids, New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

posted August 2017

Column 2

Voohrees Police Department

August 2017

The Voohrees Police Department recently visited Paul Ressler at TOPAC's headquarters in Hamilton, NJ. TOPAC donated 4 EVZIO nalxone auto-injectors to the K-9 Unit to use on the dogs if they should overdose from sniffing heroin.

AUGUST 22, 2017

Perhaps the one good thing about an overdose is that it might scare a drug abuser into going straight. But new research shows that’s usually not the case.

The number of people filling painkiller prescriptions in the six months after treatment for an opioid overdose declined about 10 percent, according to a study of Pennsylvania Medicaid records published Tuesday. Meanwhile, rates of medication-assisted treatment, considered the gold standard for opioid addiction, went up 12 percent.

August 8, 2017

NEW YORK (AP) — A safe haven where drug users inject themselves with heroin and other drugs has been quietly operating in the United States for the past three years, a report reveals.

None were known to exist in the U.S. until the disclosure in a medical journal, although several states and cities are pushing to establish these so-called supervised injection sites where users can shoot up under the care of trained staff who can treat an overdose if necessary.

Column 3

Doctors and researchers have long sought out ways to cure disease, heal the sick, and tend to those in pain. This has led to many miraculous breakthroughs and discoveries, as well as treatments that have changed society and stirred public debate, like the use of marijuana medically.

August 2017

Towson had her own near-death experience with fentanyl more than a year and a half ago, during a blizzard that dropped more than 2 feet of snow on Baltimore. She was getting high with a group of people, she told us. She and another woman were given the task of testing a new batch of dope. She wouldn't know until later that it was laced with fentanyl. It would be her first and last taste of the drug.

August 7, 2017

Mayor Megan Barry discusses the death of her son, Max, and the drug epidemic nationwide during a press conference marking her first day since her son's death. Max Barry died of an overdose in Colorado on July 29.

August 2017

Oftentimes it takes many occurrences and many things to happen before the substance user comes to the point of truly wanting or being forced to get help. It may come to their spouse leaving with the children, the children being removed from the home by Child Protective Services (CPS) or for some other legal issue to arise like jail time. Everyone has their own rock-bottom point.

In the case of the substance abuser being a teen, parents may have the feeling that their child does not have a problem, or the parent may be using as well so this is deemed normal.

August 8, 2017

Deaths from heroin and other opioids are far higher than federal statistics indicate in New Jersey and even more in Pennsylvania, according to a new analysis that examined information that was missing from records and estimated what it likely represented. Nearly 50 percent of Pennsylvania’s drug overdose deaths in federal data carried no indication of the types of drugs involved, as did 30 percent of those in New Jersey.

Column 4

August 23, 2017

MONROE - It’s her day off, but Michele Perez’s cellphone keeps lighting up with calls from staff at Inspira Woodbury and Kennedy University Hospital in Washington Township. She’s one of two unpaid point people for a new City of Angels program connecting patients with addictions to a volunteer recovery coach.

The 45-year-old Williamstown native gets the call she’s been waiting for – it’s a guy she doesn’t know in the early stages of heroin withdrawal, desperate for help. He's sitting in his car outside the hospital, and there’s a bag waiting for him at home.

August 2017

Managing an Opiate Use Disorders (OUD) with medication under the care of a physician can make the difference between life and death. When this approach is coupled with counseling, vocational and other supports, the effects can be life changing for the user as well as those who love them.